1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for use in car seat, particularly for applications in cars, RVs, trucks, buses, container trucks, and other types of vehicles, for the purpose of securing safety of human vertebral column through the means of car seat.
2. Description of Related Art
Car continues to be a dominant mode of transportation for the modem society, and accounts for the most used vehicle for most people. The major function of a car seat aims to provide the rider a place to sit when riding a car, and in consideration of safety, car makers or car seat makers also spend a great amount of attention in taking deliberation in the safety of car seat, and its protection aspect for the riders.
In most car safety accident s, the main cause of casualty to passengers is due to the impact or collision against an external force, which leads to physical damage to human bodies, and the impact or collision affected on a human body can include collision by a human body to an object, or an object to a human body. The former situation can be avoided by using a safety belt to keep the passenger in a fixed position in the car seat, and for the latter there are many known techniques that can be used to protect the passengers from harm, for examples, air bags for cars, car seats and pillows capable of cushioning effect, in particular, pillow of car seat can also provide support to a person's neck, while also keep the neck from serious harm when the car is subject to external force collision from behind.
FIG. 1 herewith shows the anatomical structure of a human vertebral column. From a side perspective, the vertebral column has a visual appearance of a “S shape”, including seven cervical vertebrae, twelve thoracic and five lumbar, one of sacrum and caudal below a lumbar. The structure of vertebral column resembles a circular column, connects to medulla, and extends from the foramen magnum to the location of the second lumbar. It is a thick nerve bundle, works to deliver information between the brain proper and other parts of the body, it meets the brain at the base of the skull, extends downward along the channel formed by the foramen. Muscle, blood vessels, and nerves are located in front and on two sides of the spine; the main function of the spine includes: supporting weight; guiding gravity so as to maintain body balance; and protecting spinal cord and nerve root to permit the brain to deliver information, or to accept information, and also protecting the neural system at the same time.
As shown in FIG. 2, under normal situations, when a passenger is in the car seat, the vertebral column 40 of a human body's back will collapse between the back muscles 41 on the two sides, the backrest 70 will be given priority to contact the back muscles 41 on the two sides of the vertebral column 40, the strength of the back is supported by the back muscle 41 on the two sides of the vertebral column 40. When the posture changes, especially when the car driver stretches arms to take command of the driver's wheel (as shown in FIG. 3), the back muscle 41 originally on the two sides of the vertebral column 40 will stretch toward the two sides, the vertebral column 40 on the back will at this time appear to be more protruding and will touch the back surface of the backrest 70. In this case, if the car is subject to considerable external force impact or collision, the backrest 70 will very likely cause a great deal of impact or collision to the back of the human body, and directly cause damages to the vertebral column 40.
In issued U.S. Pat. No. 2,855,986, entitled “SACRAL NERVE RELIEVING SEAT CUSHION BACK” (hereinafter Cited Reference 1), the Cited Reference 1 features, cited here in paraphrase, “My invention relates generally to seat cushions adapted for use primarily as a supplement to cushions of automotive vehicles. More particularly, my invention relates to improvements in automotive vehicle seat cushions of the type adapted to relieve pressure, strain and irritation to the lower portions of the spine and related areas including the sacral nerves, the prostate, and coccyx.” One difference between the Cited Reference 1 and the current invention is that the Cited Reference 1 cites back-supporting section recesses 10 to be receptive for sacrum and caudal parts of a human body, not receptive for cervical vertebrae and thoracic parts. This difference shall be apparent to set the current invention apart from the prior art. The Cited Reference 1 installs recesses 10 on the back-supporting section 3 to only preclude the sacrum and caudal parts to directly press upon the back-supporting section 3. Oppositely, the current invention takes a different approach by way of serving as a storage for a whole-section vertebral column, to facilitate for a human body subject to severe collision force to recline into this invention's recess in a vehicle collision situation. The Cited Reference 1 cannot deliver this effect. Additionally, the troughed recess in the current invention extends to reach the pubis bone position of a human body, as opposed to in the case with the Cited Reference 1, the recesses 9 extend only to the front rim of the seat-forming section 2, making the front rim of the seat-forming section 2 a receptacle end. The derived structural effect is insufficient structural strength for sustaining weights.
Furthermore, the Cited Reference 1 does not use any elastomer on the back-supporting section 3 and the seat-forming section 2, therefore the Cited Reference 1 cannot reduce the regressive speed of the human body subject to collision. On the contrary with the current invention, two sides of the backrest's troughed recess is attached with elastomer. The elastomer works to mimic human muscle on the two sides of a human vertebral column. When the human body is subject to collision or impact to lead to the body's moving backward, the caudal part will expose itself. In an embodiment of the current invention, the caudal part will enter into the troughed recess of the backrest, embedding itself into the elastomer. In this case the elastomer works as a mechanical shock absorber to reduce the entry speed of the human vertebral column into the troughed recess, to prevent overreaching impact force from damaging the human vertebral column. This setup can also prevent the vertebral column from directly contact with the backrest. As a result, the elastomer disposed in the troughed recess and the two sides of the troughed recess shall be taken in entirety into context for the interpretation of the present invention's inventive scope.
In issued U.S. Pat. No. 7,607,738, entitled “CONTOURED SEAT AND METHOD” (hereinafter the Cited Reference 2), the Cited Reference 2, cited here in paraphrase, “A contoured seat generally includes a seat surface for supporting the thighs and buttocks of a sitter and a back surface for supporting the lower back of a sitter. Defined by the seat surface are a pair of bilateral, spaced protrusions that are positioned to extend into performs musculature of the sitter. Preferably, the seat surface is inclined at a 5° to 15°, and more preferably a 7.5°, angle to induce forward pelvic tilt in conjunction with lower lumbar support of a forward angle of the back surface. The seat and back surfaces may define a sacral-coccyx pocket that has a depth that varies, along its proximal-distal path to allow for sacral stabilization. The sacral-coccyx pocket preferably is relatively narrow and deep proximally and flares as it extends in the distal direction. A reinforcing ridge may extend across a top edge of the sacral-coccyx pocket to provide additional support.” The Cited Reference 2 relates primarily to a seat, which is not literally disclosed or implied to coincide either with the current invention's vertebral column or pubis bone accommodating feature, nor with the disposition of elastomer on the two sides of a troughed recess. In its inventive scope, the Cited Reference 2 features a shock absorber system 26 disposed under the seat; the present invention does not cite such feature. The cited invention alone is not clear or suggestive to enable persons in the relevant technical art to arrive at the concept and realization of disposing elastomer on the two sides of troughed recess in the seat.
In issued U.S. Pat. No. 7,540,564, entitled “ERGONOMIC SYSTEMS AND DEVIES” (hereinafter the Cited Reference 3) cited here in paraphrase, “Ergonomic systems and devices are disclosed. In accordance with the embodiments of the invention, a system or device includes a traction surface that provides traction and/or support through contact with a portion of a user's body. For example, an ergonomic system includes a backrest cushion. The backrest cushion has a traction surface with a plurality of protruding traction pads for resting against a user's back and pulling along the user's back. The traction pads help stretch or decompress the user's spine through contact at multiple positions on the back and flanking the spine. In alternative embodiments of the invention, a chair, resting table, bed or other article of furniture includes one or more traction surfaces that provide traction through contact with one or more corresponding portions of a user's body.” The Cited Reference 3 does not disclose disposition of a cerebral-cord-receiving recess. Rather the invention therein is primarily directed to disposing vertically numerous protruding traction pads 203 on the two sides of the vertebral column. The protruding traction pads are mainly used to stretching the human vertebral column, to help maintain the user in a normal sitting posture to avoid mis-positioned sitting postures and vertebral column damage. Against this prior art's feature, the current invention discloses disposition of elastomer on the two sides of troughed recess. The objective of disposing elastomer is not directed to providing guidance for a proper sitting posture. The elastomer is of a platelet form and is assembled on the two sides of the troughed recess. It is not of a block shape assembled on the two sides of the troughed recess. One current invention's approach is to use the elastomer as muscle of the two sides of a human vertebral column. When the human body is collided against or under impact to result in a recessive movement, an intervention answering to this physical influence includes using elastomer to absorb impact force as an initiative response measure. This setup is meant to reduce the entry speed of the human vertebral column's sinking into the troughed recess, to prevent impact force from overreaching a predetermined threshold, such that the human vertebral column can be protected from damage. This ceberal cord protective function would not be attainable if the current invention adopts the configuration cited in the Cited Reference 3.
In issued U.S. Pat. No. 3,749,442, entitled “SEAT HAVING RELATIVELY ADJUSTABLE SECTIONS” (hereinafter the Cited Reference 4) cited here in paraphrase, “A seat assembly having a base and two complementary seat elements supported thereon for individual yieldingly resisted universal tilting movement to accommodate to different positions of a user's body. The seat elements have recesses or apertures offset rearwardly from the universal connections for receiving the ischial tuberosity bones of the user, and the back of the seat has a localized recess for partial reception of the lumbar portion of the user's backbone. A peripheral upturned flange may be provided on the base in a relation enabling use of the assembly as a portable unit, to be removably positioned on a chair or the like, with the shiftable seat elements then being held by the flange against interfering contact with the chair. At the forward edges of the two shiftable seat elements, the assembly may be constructed to provide a more cushioned or yielding support than at other locations.” Even though t—he seat in the Cited Reference 4 can be applied in automobile seat setting, the recess 56 located on the back of the seat cannot provide for accommodating the entire human vertebral column. The user's vertebral column would remain susceptible to collision against the back of the seat when the user is collided against. The recess cited in the Cited Reference 4 is designed to extend toward the edge of the seat. This setup can lead to seat's structural instability, weakening the weight support capability.
In collective view from the teaching that the Cited Reference 1 to the Cited Reference 4 altogether do not refer to car seat, it should be reasonable to deduce that the design principle throughout the Cited References 1 through 4 is not directed to dealing with protecting the vertebral column when the user is subject to an impact force. The design principle in the prior arts is entirely different from that adopted in the current invention. The troughed recess of the current invention is capable of aligning the vertebral column and the pubis bone for them to be mutually receptive. Even more, because the location of the troughed recess on the backrest in the current invention traverses along the shape of a human vertebral column to extend downward to reach the location of the pubis bone of a human body. This design emphasis for the vertebral column in the current invention is to avoid direct contact with the backrest and the seat when the user is under external impact, therefore effecting a protective function for the human vertebral column. This is not included in known car seat. The present invention therefore offers an inventive advantage not obvious to the persons of relevant art.
Furthermore, the Cited References 1 through 4 do not disclose troughed recess on the backrest that is structured to align with the location of pubis bone on a human body. Therefore when compared against the current invention, the prior arts cannot establish themselves to deliver identical effects. To be sure, the features of the current invention, including prevention against insufficient structural support and fitting of the vertebral column into the troughed recess when the vertebral column comes into contact with the backrest as a result of external impact, are made available by requiring the troughed recess on the backrest to align with the location of the pubis bone of a human body. These are not attained in the Cited References 1 through 4.